Manually operated ice cube trays are widely used. Such trays are often utilized in freezers as an addition to automated ice makers or as the sole means of producing ice cubes. Typically, such trays are commonly fabricated of metallic materials such as aluminum, stainless steel, etc. Such metallic trays often include individual cube shaped compartments that are filled with water, placed in a freezer and allowed to stand until the water had fully hardened into individual ice cubes. To release the ice cubes, the bottom of such trays might be warmed with, for example, relatively warm water or other sources of heat. Other such trays include extraction devices that enable the walls of each cube-forming compartment to be displaced so as to physically eject the ice cubes. In another example, a simple sheering force might also be utilized to release ice cubes from metal trays by a sharp tapping of the tray with or against a hard object to release the cubes.
Recently, flexible plastic ice trays have been widely utilized to form ice cubes without an automated ice maker. Such trays often contain individual compartments wherein water is placed prior to placing the ice tray in a freezer. When the water in these trays has fully hardened into ice, these trays could be, by virtue of the flexible plastic from which they were made, twisted in order to distort the individual ice cube compartments and eject the ice cubes therefrom. Removing only one or a selected few ice cubes from an ice tray is difficult with both the current metallic and plastic variations.
After releasing ice cubes from either a metallic or plastic ice tray, the resulting ice cubes may, for example, be placed in an ice bucket or open ice bowl to enable the user to serve the ice cubes. To remove the ice cubes form the bowls or buckets, one commonly utilizes a large spoon, tongs, or in some instances, one's fingers. Such methods are problematic, because ice cubes are slippery and are often dropped when a spoon or tong is used to dispense the ice cubes. Removing ice from a container with one's hand is, of course, wrought with dangers related to transmission of bacterial and viral infections and is often shunned by those receiving the ice cubes.
A simple and effective means of removing a selected ice cube(s) from a manually operated tray without disturbing the remaining ice does not exist. There are no disclosures for an effective and efficient means of dispensing individual ice cubes without the use of spoons, tongs, or direct manual dispensing of ice.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an apparatus that allows the manual removal of a selected single or small number of ice cubes.